We've called Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) "the most interesting man in the Senate." Granted, when you look at his comrades present and past, you could accuse us of damning him with faint praise.
But he just got even more interesting with his support for legalizing the production of industrial hemp. I don't agree with Paul on everything, but he's more and more looking like the place where the worn-out political dichotomies of right-left/GOP-DEM/conservative-liberal go to die.
He's a socially conservative Christian who wants to end the federal drug war, bring the troops home, and seriously cut spending—not trim future increases in spending, but cut real dollars right now. His latest proposal—let Americans grow their own goddamn hemp instead of forcing us to import the non-psychoactive stuff—makes sense on every level and it's apalling that production of George Washington's favorite crop has been illegal for decades now. Paul's support for industrial hemp (an issue that is traditionally associated with the most far-out folks on the extreme left) is one more indicator that Kentucky's junior senator is scrambling the circuits of politics as usual.
Image HT: Twitter feed of @FreemaninKy
Watch ReasonTV interview the man behind "Hemp History Week":
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